When Coca-Cola announced it would be moving into the premium milk business with Fairlife, its new brand of “innovative ultra-filtered milk,” the general reaction could basically be summarized as, “Uh, OK. I don’t get it, but…OK.”
That head-scratching response, however, quickly evolved into anger when Coca-Cola revealed its appallingly gross and sexist new ad campaign for Fairlife, featuring images of beautiful naked women being doused with gallons of milk. Because it’s not like we’ve never seen that before.
https://twitter.com/BlitzQuotidiano/status/537577659853594624
According to the Guardian, the ads feature photographs by Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz, who came out with a series of “Milky Pin-ups” in 2013. In the photos, the women recreate various famous poses, from Marilyn Monroe’s iconic dress-blowing scene in The Seven Year Itch to Fragonard’s The Swing, all while wearing skimpy outfits made of milk. In one of the photos, the milk appears to be gushing out of the woman’s butt, which sounds like reason enough not to purchase Fairlife milk.
Aside from the obvious sexual connotations of beautiful women doused in a creamy white substance, the ad campaign, which is set to launch in the U.S. next month, is puzzling in part because it’s unclear what they’re trying to convey. Are they supposed to make us want to douse ourselves in milk, so it spoils and we go around smelling like vomit and baby powder all day? Or is buying Fairlife supposed to bring dudes one step closer to having sex with these ladies? Do men really prefer their women open-mouthed and smiling and covered in cow juice? Apparently, at least a few Fairlife ad execs think so.
Judging by the reactions on Twitter, it seems like most people aren’t really buying it either:
Sexist rubbish throwback advertising from Coca-Cola for milk http://t.co/dxJmHaE8DG pic.twitter.com/g6ohfUXsXm keep the 70s in the 70s!
— Rebel Girl UK (@rebelgirluk) November 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/aneeshkamat/status/537951119951941633
https://twitter.com/AgQueue/status/539104347024404480
H/T The Guardian | Photo via Melissa Wiese/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)